Tom DeLonge may be the most famous member of Angels & Airwaves, but he isn’t the band’s resident Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.
That’d be drummer Ilan Rubin, who was inducted into the Rock Hall in 2020 as a member of Nine Inch Nails. As DeLonge tells ABC Audio, though, Rubin’s enshrinement hasn’t seemed to have changed him all that much.
“He hasn’t brought it up once since it happened,” DeLonge says. “We gave him a bunch of s*** and he hasn’t brought it up, but he’s funny.”
DeLonge adds that Rubin is a very deserving inductee, given his proficiency at so many different instruments.
“Like, he’s so good at drums,” DeLonge says. “And he’s infinitely better than me on guitar.”
“[Rubin’s] crazy, I’ve never met anybody with his skill-set and his knowledge, his abilities,” he adds. “He’s a phenom, he really is.”
DeLonge jokes that having a Rock Hall of Famer in his band gives himself more credibility. “It kinda makes me in the Hall of Fame because we’re in the same band,” he laughs. “So, therefore, indirectly I’m a Hall of Famer maybe.”
Of course, it’s possible that DeLonge might be inducted himself as a member of Blink-182, who’ve been eligible for nomination since 2020. So, would that be something he’d actually be interested in?
“We don’t really recognize any type of award until we get it,” DeLonge quips. ‘And if we get it, then it’s important.”
Angels & Airwaves are currently on tour in support of their new album, Lifeforms.
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